The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has introduced the FASSP designation for Society Fellows. Used after an individual’s name, FASSP is a recognizable way to identify recipients of the Society’s highest honor. The announcement was made by ASSP President Rixio Medina, CSP, CPP, FASSP, during Sunday night’s Past Presidents and Fellows Reception at the Safety 2019 Professional Development Conference and Exhibition.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA®) inducted its new Board of Directors during its annual business meeting at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce EXP) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 23. The Board of Directors for 2019-20 includes the following officers:

Canada will follow the European Union in banning some single-use plastics like straws, bags and cutlery, according to an announcement yesterday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A statement by the government accompanying the announcement notes that without such a prohibition, Canadians will throw away an estimated $8.3 billion worth of plastic materials each year by 2030. Less than 10 percent of the plastic used in Canada gets recycled.

It’s National Forklift Safety Day, designated as such by The Industrial Truck Association (ITA), which uses it as an opportunity for the industry to educate customers, policymakers, and government officials about the safe use of forklifts and the importance of proper operator training.

During a flash session Monday on the expo floor at Safety 2019, Don Leonard of the MARCOM Group discussed microlearning and how it can be used for training, using mobile devices, how it can improve productivity and how to involve employees in content creation. Microlearning can be described at three- to five-minute online courses that are video-based with a test and are aimed at smartphone users.

Total Worker Health is an area of emerging importance for safety professionals in which ASSP has designated a task force. When done right, the benefits to business and to employees include lower risk, collaborative employee-employer engagements and fewer injuries, ASSP says. In short, TWH can lead to a more sustainable workforce.

With the summer festival and fair season barely underway, a young worker in Michigan suffered an injury so serious on Saturday that he had to have a leg amputated. News sources say the 22-year-old was critically injured at the Curwood Festival in Owosso, a small community 94 miles northwest of Detroit.

Employees at a psychiatric hospital in Colorado were exposed to workplace violence and bloodborne pathogens, according to OSHA investigators, who fined their employer $32,392. OSHA inspected Centennial Peaks Hospital in Louisville, an acute psychiatric treatment facility owned by UHS of Centennial Peaks LLC, after a complaint of workplace violence was lodged with the agency in December 2018.

One year after adopting a new organization name as part of a larger rebranding strategy, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has introduced a new name – Safety Focus – for its annual immersive, week-long education event. The announcement was made Monday by ASSP President Rixio Medina, CSP, CPP, at the Safety 2019 Professional Development Conference and Exhibition. “We are aligning all of our events to the new brand,” Medina said.

Authorities are trying to determine if severe weather was the cause of a construction crane collapse yesterday in Dallas that killed one person and injured six. Severe storms with strong winds were moving through the area at the time of the incident in the city’s downtown. The crane plunged through four floors of an apartment building and onto a parking garage, causing some of the garage’s floors to collapse and burying vehicles in the rubble.